What Are Major Intervals?
In this Theory lesson we’ll be looking at one of the most commonly used intervals in modern music, the Major Interval.
There are 4 different Major Intervals in music, the Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Major 6th and Major 7th.
Each of these intervals can be found in the major scale, and so if you know your major scale notes you can always find these intervals from any given root as they will be the intervals found in that scale.
For example, if you have a C major scale:
C D E F G A B C
And you want to find the Major Intervals, you simply look at the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of that scale.
C-D = Major 2nd
C-E = Major 3rd
C-A = Major 6th
C-B = Major 7th
For those of us that are still learning the notes of our major scales, there are formulas that you can memorize and use to figure out all of these intervals without knowing the notes of their corresponding major scales.
Here are those formulas to check out.
Major 2nd Intervals
Major 2nd intervals can be worked out as they are 1-tone, 2-frets, apart from each other at all times.
This means that if you want to find the note that is a Major 2nd above a given note, you simple add 1 tone, or 2 frets, to that note and you have a Major 2nd interval.
For example, if you had the note G, you then add a tone, or 2 frets, to that note and you get the note that is a Major 2nd above G, which turns out to be the note A.
Here are a couple of examples of Major 2nd intervals written out on different parts of the neck.
Test Your Theory Knowledge!
After you’ve learned how to build a Major 2nd interval, go ahead and write a number of them out and post your work below. I will be happy to go over and check your work to make sure that you’re on the right track when it comes to identifying and writing this interval.
Major 3rd Intervals
The major 3rd interval is one-tone wider than the Major 2nd that we just looked at, therefore it is 2 whole-steps (4 frets) away from the root note of that interval.
This means that if you have a note, for example G, and you want to build or write a Major 3rd interval on top of that note, you go up 2 whole-steps, 4 frets on the guitar, and you will find that note, which in this case is the note B.
Here are a couple of examples of Major 3rd intervals written out on different parts of the neck.
Test Your Theory Knowledge!
After you’ve learned how to build a Major 3rd interval, go ahead and write a number of them out and post your work below. I will be happy to go over and check your work to make sure that you’re on the right track when it comes to identifying and writing this interval.
Major 6th Intervals
The Major 6th interval is much larger than the other two intervals we have already looked at, and so we will look at two ways to find this interval, one ascending and one descending.
To find a Major 6th interval going up, you need to look 4.5 whole-steps above the note you are on to find the Major 6th interval.
This means that if you have the note C, you look 4.5 whole-steps above that note (C-D-E-F#-G#-A) and you get the note A, a Major 6th above C.
The other way to find this note, and usually the easier of the two, is to look 1.5 whole-steps below the note you’re on.
Again, looking at the note C, you go down 1.5 whole-steps (C-Bb-A) and you get the note that is a Major 6th from C, in this case the note A.
Here are a couple of examples of Major 6th intervals written out on different parts of the neck.
Test Your Theory Knowledge!
After you’ve learned how to build a Major 6th interval, go ahead and write a number of them out and post your work below. I will be happy to go over and check your work to make sure that you’re on the right track when it comes to identifying and writing this interval.
Major 7th Intervals
Again, the Major 7th interval is a large leap from the root note of the equation, and so there are two ways to work out this note, one going up and one going down.
The first way, going up, means that you have to look 5.5 whole-steps from the note you are on to find it’s related Major 7th interval.
For example, if you have the note C, you go up 5.5 whole-steps (C-D-E-F#-G#-A#-B) and you get the Major 7th interval, in this case the note B.
But, the other way is far easier and probably the better of the two to use when finding a Major 7th interval.
In this case, you simply look a half-step (1-fret) below the note you’re on and you will find the note that is a Major 7th above the root note.
Again, looking at our note C as an example, you can go a half-step below C, to find B, which is the same note we saw earlier when using the ascending version of the formula to work out this interval.
Here are a couple of examples of Major 7th intervals written out on different parts of the neck.
Test Your Theory Knowledge!
After you’ve learned how to build a Major 7th interval, go ahead and write a number of them out and post your work below. I will be happy to go over and check your work to make sure that you’re on the right track when it comes to identifying and writing this interval.
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This post has been edited by The Professor: Mar 18 2013, 11:46 AM